The two-year hunt for the Brexit ‘unicorn’

EU officials are reeling at the resurgence of the idea that technology can solve the Irish border issue

On Monday evening, Michel Barnier will sit down to dinner in Brussels with his third Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay.

The British cabinet minister will come fresh from meetings with the alternative arrangements working group, a group of Tory MPs from across the party who believe there is something to the idea of the Malthouse compromise, a resurrection of the idea that technology could solve the Irish border issue. UK officials are playing down expectations. The thought of it has EU officials tearing their hair out.